The organization shall determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended outcomes of its environmental management system. Such issues shall include environmental conditions being affected by or capable of affecting the organization.
4.2/ The organization shall determine:
a) the interested parties that are relevant to the environmental management system;
b) the relevant needs and expectations (i.e. requirements) of these interested parties;
c) which of these needs and expectations become its compliance obligations.
4.3 Determining the scope of the environment management system
The organization shall determine the boundaries and applicability of the environmental management system to establish its scope.
When determining this scope, the organization shall consider:
a) the external and internal issues referred to in 4.1;
b) the compliance obligations referred to in 4.2;
c) its organizational unit(s), function(s), and physical boundaries;
d) its activities, products and services;
e) its authority and ability to exercise control and influence.Once the scope is defined, all activities, products and services of the organization within that scope need to be included in the environmental management system.
The scope shall be maintained as documented information and be available to interested parties.